Australia burns

[teadrinker]

this is for everyone, i was wondering if a well was good enough to survive in for such a fire.

This was not just a "fire" but a firestorm, which is of such intensity as to cause its own climatic system. In particular, it sucks the oxygen out of the air at such a rate as to cause immense winds, which themselves fan and increase the fire. If you like breathing, a partially enclosed space such as a well would be of very little use.

-T.

 

[Telstra]

This was not just a "fire" but a firestorm, which is of such intensity as to cause its own climatic system. In particular, it sucks the oxygen out of the air at such a rate as to cause immense winds, which themselves fan and increase the fire. If you like breathing, a partially enclosed space such as a well would be of very little use.

-T.

did you mean people can't survive in a cool well with some water because of lack of air ?

I wonder if this has been proven that people can't survive in the cool well with water.

 

[teadrinker]

I wonder if this has been proven that people can't survive in the cool well with water.

Wells are pretty uncommon round here, but there are cases of people trying to take refuge in rainwater tanks and either being boiled or suffocated to death.

-T.

 

[Joshua_me]

My God.

I've never seen anything like that.

 

[Kester]

130 latest death toll.

 

[Telstra]

Wells are pretty uncommon round here, but there are cases of people trying to take refuge in rainwater tanks and either being boiled or suffocated to death.

-T.

big difference.
Rainwater tanks are above ground and wells are below ground.
Any scientist here ? i think people would survive in a well with water.

If wells work, the future building codes should include wells in fire danger areas.

 

[crowboy]

I get notices each year about fire safety etc and have never given it much thought as I live in a metropolitan suburb.

However, I live near a large conservation reserve. Surrounded on three sides with a buffer of: a street with one row of houses in front of me, two houses to the right of me, three to the left. I thought if there ever was a fire that the end houses and the row in front would be in danger, not me. But what I saw has made me realise If that happended here, I'm screwed.

And when I think about it, the bush was burnt out a few months before I built my home. The view from my balcony for the first few months was of scorched earth. Now there is plenty of very dry scrub to burn.

I will now take the advice and have a bushfire evac plan. You never know.

My heart goes out to those affected by the fires. Good luck and best wishes to you all.

 

[ozguy]

Latest figures: 131 dead, with the figure likely to rise to at least 230 ... 750 homes destroyed ... 330,000 hectares burnt.

No man is an island entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were;
any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.

John Donne​

Images from a state on fire ....

 

[ozguy]

 

[ozguy]

 

[ozguy]

 

[Yooper]

This photo is positively frightening:

Thanks for the updates! Stay safe!

 

[Telstra]

This photo is positively frightening:

Thanks for the updates! Stay safe!

Nowhere to run. Fires everywhere.

one Family survive because they built a concrete fire bunker (TV news).

 

[bearinholland]

My heart bleeds for Victoria. I have been there many times and know the area very well. Lovely Marysville, razed to the ground, it beggars belief. The Yarra Valley, my idea of Eden... a charred wasteland. The loss of human life, the suffering, the wildlife... I follow the news and find myself in tears at every shocking new tale of woe. Australia, my second home, may the rains come soon.

 

[gsdx]

Rainwater tanks are above ground and wells are below ground.
Any scientist here ? i think people would survive in a well with water.

If wells work, the future building codes should include wells in fire danger areas.

Unless the well is sealed, you'll probably suffocate. It's not the water that keeps you alive. . . it's the oxygen, and the fire sucks the oxygen from everywhere, even from a well. That's why fires of that magnitude create their own wind. They suck in air from everywhere around it to feed it.

Unless you can breathe underwater, you're fucked.

 

[roguehunter]

i am crying now reading these reports, my aunt and uncle live in the yarra valley, and although i hear they are alright, i still cant be sure, and i know they have lost their hosue, porperty, over 200 cows and all their fences, and i cant do anything to help.


im also scared a little because i live in Melbourne and the closest fire truck to us is over 2 and a half hours away, fighting these fires.

 

[Telstra]

Unless the well is sealed, you'll probably suffocate. It's not the water that keeps you alive. . . it's the oxygen, and the fire sucks the oxygen from everywhere, even from a well. That's why fires of that magnitude create their own wind. They suck in air from everywhere around it to feed it.

Unless you can breathe underwater, you're fucked.

a family survived in that fire because they built a concrete bunker with the door shut.
So maybe a fire bunker for every new home in fire danger area.

there were over 10 days of extreme temperature here (over 40 degrees C).

 

[bankside]

Highly surreal - looks like where I live in Canada right now but for us it is snow, not ash.

 

[caligula]

We were very lucky on Saturday, thank goodness.

We've got this huge garden where we live in central Vic, surrounded by bush and paddocks, all tinder-dry of course. The wind on Saturday was like the winds of hell - so scorching and hot, and blowing like a winter storm - and then it reached 46 (114.8F). Trees were coming down so I certainly stayed inside.

We saw the fires in Bendigo take hold - about 30 ks from us. We could see all the smoke and the sky turned pink. But thankfully it didn't spread in our direction. It would have played out like the Yarra Valley inferno, if it had.

So, reasons to be thankful. The toll is now at 173.

It's funny what you propose saving if you have to jump in your car and go. If it came to it, I intended saving photo albums of my misspent youth in the 80s, three or four paintings of portable size, my computer, our two twitty dogs of course, and our senior citizen cat, provided we could find him (he's notorious for nicking off at untimely moments).

 

[gsdx]

A segment from a recent Reuters news report:

(Colour-coding my own.)

Police believe some of the fires, which razed rural towns near the country's second biggest city, Melbourne, were deliberately lit and declared one devastated town a crime scene.

"There are no words to describe it other than mass murder," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier told local television. "These numbers (of dead) are numbing."

The bushfires are the country's worst natural disaster in more than a century, and will put pressure on Rudd to deliver a broad new climate policy.

One massive bushfire tore through several towns in the southern state of Victoria on Saturday night, destroying everything in its path. Many people died in cars trying to flee and others were killed huddled in their homes, yet some escaped by jumping into swimming pools or farm reservoirs.

The inferno was as tall as a four-storey building at one stage and was sparking spot fires 40 km (25 miles) ahead of itself as the strong winds blew hot embers in its path.

"It's going to look like Hiroshima, I tell you. It's going to look like a nuclear bomb. There are animals dead all over the road," said Harvey.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090209/world/international_us_australia_fires